Divine Empire

American Death Metal Band

Death / thrash metal band from Boca Raton, FL, formed in 1997 Divine Empire was formed in late "97" by Jason Blachowicz, J.P. Soars & Derek Roddy, the trio played together on Malevolent Creation's sixth CD "In Cold Blood", Jason is Malevolent's original "Thunderous" bass player performing on their first six albums during a ten year career with the band ("The Ten Commandments" through "In Cold Blood", performing all vocals on "Eternal", "Joe Black" & "In Cold Blood") so yes, there is definitely Malevolent blood in this band. The trio quit Malevolent on different occasions due to personal reasons, they connected well when they jammed together & weren't doing anything at the time, so the three of them stayed in contact with one another, then decided to reform & record a seven song demo achieving interest from many labels, signing with Olympic Recordings distributed through Mercury & resulting in their first album "Redemption" released in 1998, which did very well & landed them on two successful major US tours, one with Cryptopsy, Gorguts & Vader, the other with Witchery, Borknagar & the almighty Emperor! After the second tour, Jason & J.P. parted ways with Derek Roddy due to personal reasons (Got that everybody! Derek did not leave Divine Empire to join Hate Eternal; he was fired due to personal reasons.) Divine Empire has recently schismed, with Jason forming a new line up (seen above) after firing Duane and John-Paul leaving to form his own band. Due to this conflict, they had to drop off of the Origin/Malevolent Creation tour of 2005. Contrary to what he might say, David Kinkade was never in Decrepit Birth. According to Matt Sotelo (Decrepit Birth guitarist/vocalist), Kinkade tried out for the band but didn't meet the grade so didn't get the slot, but decided to go around telling people he used to be in Decrepit Birth. It has also been called into strong question as to whether he was in any of the other two reknowned bands he claims to have been a part of - with no mention of him on either Nile, or Vital Remain's pages. Current line-up Jason Blachowicz - Bass, Vocals Marco Martell - Guitar Gus Rios - Drums Former/past member(s) Drums : Alex Marquez Derek Roddy (Hate Eternal, Nile, Malevolent C Duane Timlin Guitar : John Paul Soars (Also Vocal)